Posted on 05/25/2010 12:19:17 PM PDT by Gomez
ping
Yikes. I am very heavy in the security world these days. This is pretty interesting.
This is definitely not cool. I know Firefox for version 4 is slated to have a way to hide the history, but its not been said how they will address it.
From what I’ve heard, browsers are designed for allowing access to this history. There’s even a website that can show you a number of places you’ve visited just by displaying their page. It is either through the history or through deciphering the cookies.
As I’ve said many times, “It will be amusing with the hacker scum discover that Firefox and other ‘Not Microsoft’ browsers are as fun to hack since they are as or more open than IE now.” This is a case where by trying to kill IE, they might be making it into the most secure as it has to defend the most.
Seeing more browser hijack threats and more indications that Firefox is just as vulnerable as IE.
My understanding is this: a page will display visited links in different colors. The javascript can then query the color of any given text element. Hence, you can create a hidden page (iframe) that can check to see if you've visited specific web addresses.
This is something that should be of great concern to all FReepers - it is very easy for, say, a government website to check if you've been to http://www.freerepublic.com! (If that link is discolored - which it certainly should be for this crew - then javascript can detect you've been visiting it....)
But isn’t it the browser that is the only thing determining the color? In this case, I believe it is only the browser doing it. There’s no reason for a browser to SEND all of our history to others to simply change a color on only our screen.
I think other history-related issues are at play with this thread and not the hyperlink color thing you mention. Sorry.
That differing javascript code execution is how the data gets sent back to the server - for example, by trying to load a graphic with a coded file name. Apache will both return the graphic image, but also note that the coded filename was accessed, and by a certain IP address - and, if that spying webpage had a login, by what login account.
Wow! That’s pretty wicked!
Thanks for the heads up!
Frack! I’m about ready to go back to Netscape 1.0, text-only ;-)
Can you post the name of that site?
Odd error found; “ memory is mailable and moldable “; probably should be ‘malleable,’ but since this doesn’t affect the story and outcome, who cares.
All in all, Firefox today, with a good set of extensions, is the most privacy-protecting browser on the market. Extensions that you must have are: NoScript, Adblock Plus, Ghostery, OptimizeGoogle. Keep your IE or Chrome for script-heavy trusted sites, but do most of your casual browsing in FF. You'd be amazed to see how many spy and ad sites it blocks.
I keep history for one day and keep cookies turned off with a few exceptions. See any problem with that?
This article references that and other sites:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/20/browser_history_attack/
Your solutions don't block scripts, and those scripts can do whatever they want to in your browser (such as execute the attack that the article describes.) Web bugs are also not affected, and they report your page visit to whoever planted the bug.
I tested the exploit in my FF, and the exploit doesn't work at all. This is because NoScript blocked the Javascript on his site by default, and that's how it should be. Most sites don't need Javascript, and if it's there it's only to spy on you and to show you the ads. Some sites use Javascript for menus, and most shopping carts use Javascript to validate your input. Those should be allowed. Or I use IE for purchases.
Thanks,,, java script is now off... lets see if it adversely affects my surfing..
A lot easier to just use konqueror.
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